


in the winter

by bloodvinez



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Reincarnation, M/M, Poetry, Prose Poem, Reincarnation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-09
Updated: 2020-11-09
Packaged: 2021-03-08 17:07:09
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 476
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27470194
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bloodvinez/pseuds/bloodvinez
Summary: a prose poem from bertholdt to reiner.
Relationships: Reiner Braun/Bertolt Hoover
Kudos: 8





	in the winter

In the winter, snow falls as hard as my heart does for you, Reiner. We are sheltered from the cold by the old growth that grows as old as we do with each tick of the clock. Our bodies may not be withered but our souls and memories age with each run around the block of time. The warmth of the fireplace consumes us as the jaws of the giants have in our past life. Now, I only wish for any part of me to be consumed by your embrace because I’ve never known arms as strong as yours or eyes that are as gold or lips as bold.

At sixteen, and I, fifteen, frolicking in blizzards in our caramel parkas, we made snow angels. But in reality, angels were the good who only did good and they had no blood on their hands as our bloody hands did. Metaphorically. A metaphor for that metallic smell I smelled when I kicked down that wall. No… No metaphor. Did you see my angel on the ground, Reiner? I thought I saw a tail and horns but you corrected my sight with your dastardly spectacular loving gaze. Yet lo and behold, we saw our angels’ wings, but the wings were torn and when it stopped snowing we were left with the pitch black of the night and the pitch black of those feathers we couldn’t shed or leave behind.

In the winter, snow falls as hard as you did when you learned where I had gone. Gone in Shinganshina, gone from your side whereas you were spared and sent to Marley with a flickering hope, a heedful heart and healing wounds. We never saw each other again but I watched those gold eyes grow dull and that hope flicker out, stubble growing out of sadness and solvency at the age of twenty-one. I remained sixteen with a soul six feet below ground in your heart but a body that was marred and scarred lying contorted and distorted on a rooftop.

Now, as the alarm buzzes and a crimson 7:00am is projected into my sight, I turn to see a blanket of snow outside and our blanket and one of my hoodies hugging you tightly as you snore. I had long forgotten the anxious and the rotten and the self-loathing that came with our jobs to betray our comrades because now, we live another life where we can love and laugh by the fireplace and no one will be out to make us pay for their losses with our lives. Your dearest Bertholdt has forgiven you and had forgiven you in another universe even before his death. He never minded how you deemed him unreliable, he just wanted your dependence. Now, he is content because he’s become your shoulder as it grows colder and colder…

In the winter.


End file.
